Olympic Lifting Seminar, the Snatch, Sunday, January 24th @ 1PM

We’re going to hold an olympic lifting seminar on Sunday, January 24th @ 1PM on the Snatch. The seminar should last about 3 to 3.5 hours and we’ll go over the Snatch progression, various snatch drills and work on everyone’s skills. You should have a reasonable level of comfort with your overhead squat if you’d like to attend this seminar.

We’re limiting participation to the first 10 people who sign up.

About the Trainers

Ben Stephens & Jon Forney: Ben and Jon train at CrossFit Charlottesville and have diligently been Olympic Lifting for the last 3 years. They are both certified CrossFit instructors and hold USAW Club Coach certifications.

This is definitely something I am interested in, but I’m a bit leery with the OHS because it seems whenever I do them I end up with numbness in my right thumb and forefinger afterward. After this morning’s WOD, I had a bit of temporary arm motor instability, so I know I’m pinching a nerve in there somewhere. But maybe this seminar would be an opportune time to address any defects in my OHS mechanics.

Aaron — Your numbness probably isn’t a result of poor mechanics at all.

I’ve personally experienced numbness in my hands (usually pinkie fingers) during OHS. I’ve also read about many similar complaints on the general CF message boards. I’ve never seen a convincing diagnosis, but a pinched nerve is certainly a possibility, given the fact that you’re actuating (isometrically) lots of muscles that you typically don’t utilize. This is the sort of problem that your body will work out on its own, given sufficient repetition. Anecdotally: I don’t have finger numbness problems anymore, and I really haven’t consciously changed my mechanics since the time that I used to have numbness problems.

Another theory: this may be partly a circulatory issue. In an OHS, your hands are as far away from your heart as possible, your circulatory system is working against gravity, and you’re simultaneously making demands for blood in your legs, shoulders and back. Finger numbness may be your body’s way of economizing on scarce resources during a fight-or-flight episode by sending minimal blood flow to parts of your body (like your digits) that are reserved for fine motor tasks. I’ve been told that poorly conditioned soldiers have trouble firing their weapons under combat conditions because of a similar set of circulatory/nervous-system issues.